Today from Davos, we have this observation from Mitch Kapor of Linden Labs (courtesy of the UK Independent):

Mitch Kapor, the father of Lotus and chairman of Linden Lab – a $11m revenue company that is expected to double in size this year – thinks Second Life could help the world to reduce its carbon footprint if more chief executives followed Mr Palmisano’s example and used the virtual realm for corporate meetings instead of fly their directors around.

Also, the world’s hunger problem would be solved if instead of eating meats and grains, people would find mages in World of Warcraft and eat summoned muffins.

On the other hand, Ted Castronova, who is actually, you know, an economist and stuff, comments on the latest node in the ongoing SL Backlash: is it actually a ponzi scheme? Uh, no, but in the end it doesn’t matter.

I don’t think SL is going to enjoy the backlash that’s now coming, led by Mr. Harrison’s piece and Clay Shirky’s. Hype is such a dangerous marketing tool. A two-edged blade with rebound.

All in all, it’s disappointing. 2007 may become known as the virtual world crash. That was the year when all the serious people decided that everything they heard about virtual economies was crap, just because SL turned out to be more like Mayberry than Manhattan.